Subject: [mg114569] Re: Replacement Rule with Sqrt in denominator. Also Bug in Series

From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>

Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 06:40:26 -0500 (EST)

On 12/7/10 at 6:45 AM, fateman at cs.berkeley.edu (Richard Fateman)
wrote:
>On 12/6/2010 3:14 AM, Bill Rowe wrote: ...
>>I don't agree the behavior of replacement rules reflects an error
>>in design.
>Aha, but you don't answer the question. Let us say that the
>designer put in something you truly thought was wrong, for example
>the designer truly thought that Cot[x] could be simplified to
>1/x*Tan[x].
>If this is not a bug, perhaps you would call it a BLUNDER?
This is a meaningless strawman of your own making which has no
bearing on the discussion. Or is it you are arguing someone
designing software to do mathematics would intentionally create
a design to return 1/x*Tan[x] as a result for Cot[x]? I cannot
believe anyone designing software to do mathematics would argue
getting 1/x*Tan[x] as the result for Cot[x] was intentional design.
You have made it abundantly clear you do not like the current
design of Mathematica with respect to how replacement rules
work. And that is fine. You are clearly entitled to your own
preferences with respect to how anything in Mathematica works or
doesn't work for that matter. I merely point out your dislike of
the design that results in the behavior of replacement rules
does not make that behavior a bug nor a design error.